The Bank of England decided to keep the interest rate of 0.50% unchanged and announced a new round of asset purchase program.
Asian and European trading sessions:
Euro: During the Asian trading session the euro rose to a $1.331 level, two -month highs against the U.S. dollar after the statements of Prime Minister of Greece Lucas Papademos who said that an agreement regarding the international help can still be reached later today.The EUR/USD pair continued to strengthen its long positions during the European session as well and was able to record a new high at $1.3320.
British Pound: One of the main theme for today’s pound trading dynamics is announcement a new round of asset purchase program by , the Bank of England .The pound regained yesterday’s losses and was driven by the expectations that the Bank of England will increase bond purchases by 50 billion pounds ($ 79 billion) at today’s meeting. The other main theme was also a decision on interest rate of England. The 0.50 % with 0.50% forecasted, this announcement was made during the European session and meant that the Bank of England deceived to keep the rate unchanged. The GBP / USD pair of rose, reaching a high of its trading day at $ 1.5885. As expected, the Bank of England increased its bond purchase program by 50 billion pounds to the level of 325 billion pounds.
New Zealand dollar: The New Zealand dollar fell after the consumer price index in China in January rose by 4.5% compare with forecasted 4.0% and recording increase by 4.1% in December.
American trading session:
Oil: OPEC, in its monthly report, reduced forecast of growth of world oil demand in February
However, the Crude oil futures grew today by 1.05 dollars to 99.76 dollars per barrel.
Gold: The cost of the February’s gold futures today recorded its daily high of 1752.7 dollars per ounce today.
The price of gold were rising against a background of positive news from Greece and the weakening of the U.S. dollar. They suffered though fast intraday sell-off and finally closed at $1729.42 per barrel.